Exclusive 5 Page Preview of Star Trek: Captain’s Log: Sulu Comic

Next week IDW kicks off "Star Trek: Captain’s Log", a new periodic series of comics with each issue focusing on a different (but lesser-seen) Trek captain. The first issue is devoted to Captain Sulu of the USS Excelsior and we have an exclusive five page preview below.

PREVIEW: Star Trek Captain’s Log: Sulu Written by Scott & David Tipton, art by David Messina.

Synopsis:

Introducing a brand-new series focusing on some of the most famous Captains in Starfleet history!

In the debut issue, Captain Hikaru Sulu, still new to the command of the U.S.S. Excelsior, finds himself once again face to face with one of the Federation’s most dangerous and mysterious adversaries-the Tholians! From the creative team behind Spock: Reflections!.

The "Captain’s Log" series will continue through 2010, but is not monthly. It will run like the Alien Spotlight series, each focusing on a new captain, with a different writer. Look for an update soon with the confirmed list of captains for the rest of the series.

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JWM

Interesting, but not a big enough Sulu fan to pursue it.

January 8, 2010 7:04 pm

B4

I just read that the untitled Star Trek Sequel Release Date is June 29, 2012

Cheers

January 8, 2010 7:08 pm

garen

yeah…i wont be picking this one up. Just not interested enough in SOLO SULU.

January 8, 2010 7:09 pm

Jeffrey S. Nelson

Not the best likness of Sulu. Oh, my!

January 8, 2010 7:10 pm

Will_H

They drew Sulu too young looking. He looks like he should have during TOS. Then again, sometimes it looks like George Takei stopped aging after Star Trek II. Looks like it could be an interesting story, though. The first officer is annoying, though.

January 8, 2010 7:25 pm

The Real Kobyiashi Maru

always wished they’d do an Excelsior series….

have Shatner guest star…everybody… it’d just be… tooo freaking good…

Dang Paramount!!

January 8, 2010 7:36 pm

Vardonir

An Excelsior story…
Involving the Tholians?
How come that sounds familiar?

I haven’t read it completely, but the opening of the novel “The Sundered” is like that. A fencing match, and the Tholians are involved somehow.

I’ll buy it if the first officer is the same guy (Chekov) as in the novel. *shot*
PS: Page 3. That close-up of Sulu is so… Well, it looks… Somewhat scary, IMO.

This looks cool. It’s great that they’re still using George Takei’s likeness, but somewhere down the line in future merchandise, I imagine they’ll switch over to Pine, Quinto, Pegg, Urban, Saldana, Cho & Yelchin.

January 8, 2010 9:13 pm

ryanhuyton

I can’t wait to see what the Tholians look like in this issue. In fact, I’d like to see them along with the Gorn in the next movie. 2 of the underused aliens in Star Trek. Underrated as well.

January 8, 2010 9:59 pm

Zinc Saucier

Cool. Do we know what other captains will be featured yet? I hope there’s a Robau issue, set in the prime timeline where he didn’t die.

January 8, 2010 10:11 pm

Harry Ballz

If this is featuring “Sulu’s Log”, do you really think it’s for kids to read?

January 8, 2010 10:17 pm

Christine

#12 :: Oooo, touché! (Pun intended.)

Art looks good. :D I’m quite the Sulu fan; I’ll have to maybe check this out. Will I buy it? Maybe, but not unless I think it’s really interesting-looking.

January 8, 2010 10:45 pm

ryanhuyton

I hope there is a Captain Garrett issue as well. There is still not a lot known about the Enterprise-C or her captain.

January 8, 2010 10:49 pm

Davy Crocket, King of the Alaskan Frontier

they should do a captain Scott issue, and a captian riker issue,
u know whats funny is that the reason why takei hates on shatner so much even today is in large part to paramount not wanting to do a capt sulu series that Takei kept trying to talk the studio into doing for years.

Now this sounds interesting Excelsior+Tholians! And I’m very glad they did not make Chekov Sulu’s XO, Chekov deserves his own command by the time TUC.

January 9, 2010 1:38 am

Alientraveller

Looks good, love the Tholians myself.

I wonder why though everyone, including the new movie writers, place so much emphasis on Sulu’s fencing skills though? OK, that Naked Time scene is iconic afterall, but Sulu’s also an expert with guns, physics, flying and martial arts.

#9: “This looks cool. It’s great that they’re still using George Takei’s likeness, but somewhere down the line in future merchandise, I imagine they’ll switch over to Pine, Quinto, Pegg, Urban, Saldana, Cho & Yelchin.”

Maybe … but there’s a pretty good chance that in, say, three or four movies from now, any (or even all) of those actors will have moved on from the roles, either because their career paths then lie elsewhere, or because the Supreme Court finishes three films, calls it good enough, and hands off the franchise to some other party who decides to explore a different part of the Star Trek universe than one with Captain Kirk in it.

If that happens, then the likeness of Pine, Quinto, etc will only be appropriate or marketable for titles _specifically_ set in the Red Matter Timeline. If, on the other hand, the Red Matter Timeline is continued with re-re-cast characters, then comic book artists may even start drawing “generic” versions of the characters, designed to evoke past actors as a group without specifically depicting just one.

The odds of this particular Enterprise crew _replacing_ the original as marketable faces for the long haul is, really, vanishingly small. For that to happen, the Red Matter Universe would have to log some serious hours under its belt (currently it’s just two hours against god-and-certain-fanatic-fans-knows-how-many), remain popular with a very broad (not just the faithful) audience, _and_ keep these exact same actors in the role. What do you think the odds are? (and that’s a sincere, open question)

January 9, 2010 3:18 am

nuSpock

#18–I think they’re focusing of Sulu’s fencing skills because its foreshadowing Picard’s interest in fencing, and also because John Cho’s version of Sulu mentioned fencing in last year’s blockbuster film.

January 9, 2010 3:44 am

ryanhuyton

#18 There’s nothing wrong with Sulu fencing. Its who he is. As long as he doesn’t chop Captain Kirk’s head off, then it doesn’t matter what he does with his sword.

January 9, 2010 4:08 am

bill hiro

“This looks cool. It’s great that they’re still using George Takei’s likeness, but somewhere down the line in future merchandise, I imagine they’ll switch over to Pine, Quinto, Pegg, Urban, Saldana, Cho & Yelchin.”

Give the comic credit. When they’re fencing, they’re actually fencing. Trek09’s Sulu? He says he specializes in fencing, but what we saw him doing was flat out NOT FENCING! Some swords use in fencing are Foils, Epees and Sabres. What Sulu was using was a retractable Katana and his moves were not fencing like.

I know that the writers wanted to give NuSulu a nod from the classic Sulu, but it’s more for nodding sake than being beneficial because this is not what he was doing.

I always thought a Sulu show would have been cool. I really thought the brief scenes of him as Captain of his own ship were cool. That’s a show, or direction, I would have enjoyed seeing.

January 9, 2010 11:50 am

Matt

Comm Officer: Captain Sulu, message coming in from Starfleet Command.

Sulu: Put it through down here.

*Admiral comes on viewer*

Sulu: Helloooooooo

January 9, 2010 12:32 pm

Gorn Captain

Nice that somebody remembered Sulu’s interest in Botany from “The Man Trap” after all these years.

January 9, 2010 1:26 pm

David Stoeckel

A Captain Log Comic is a Good Idea, But why are they starting with Sulu? I thought they would start with Kirk. Also, I had heard that IDW was going to a Comic based on STAR TREK:TITAN. Is that happening or not?